d.a. alvin bragg have a case or not? is he grasping at straws? shouldn't d.a. ampant crime in new york city? d.a. bragg, he already downgraded over 52% of all felony charges to misdemeanors. that happened last fall. maybe d.a. bragg should look what is hitting new york city voters instead. tomorrow night we have jam-packed show. house foreign affairs chairman michael mccaul. congressman greg stuebe, economic pro steve moore. remember to do this, we really love to read your emails. we read them all. you can email us to emac viewsers @fox.com. we love reading them. this irs story is a serious one. we'll stay on it. we'll try to get what is going on. we'll bring you news on that and much, much more. i'm elizabeth macdonald. thank you for watching "the evening edit." we enjoy you watching the show. we hope you like the news we brought. we'll keep at it. look who is here now, it is tom for "the bottom line," we want to say hi to dagen and sean. this irs story is getting weirder by the minute. dagen: oops, might get audited by the irs. sean: thanks, e-mac. ♪. dagen: g

d.a.'s office in the years before bragg got into office? the case depends on testimony from a convicted felon. a tax cheat and admitted liar by the name of michael cohen. he is the d.a.'s star witness. here is michael cohen's former legal advisor bob last night on this show. >> during that first 2 hour meeting michael cohen who was pacing back and forth would suddenly stop in the middle of what he was talking about and turn and point his finger at us and say i want you guys to understand i will do whatever the f i have to do. i will never spend a day in jail. he said that at least 10 to 20 times during that 2 hour period. it was a bizarre mantra. it made it clear to us that michael cohen was saying i will lie, cheat, steal, shoot someone. i will never spend a day in jail. he spent more than a day in jail. who does he blame? not himself even though count 1 through 7 related to times before he met donald trump. he blames donald trump. >> sean: will you believe the liar or that gentleman who is not a felon? according to just news.com and john s

d.a. braggu said the over/under on indictments was 2.5, over. still looking pretty good, joe. right, we don't know what will happen today. the grand jury is meeting this afternoon. they're slated to meet again on wednesday. we don't know if they'll consider the trump case, if charges will come this week, next or if at all. certainly, if there is a criminal matter committed, it should be investigated and then charged. no person is above the law. yes, there are political ramifications. that is a separate question. there are democrats who are nervous about this particular case. but it is only one of four, as you laid out. the legal peril for trump does not end even if this manhattan d.a. declines to prosecute or if the case is less serious than some of the others. still, this is just one of four for the former president. it will be history no matter what does happen. yes, we can see down the road whether it helps in the gop primary, it may, or helps in the general election. it almost certainly will

. >> reporter: republican house judiciary chairman jim jordan sent another letter to d.a. braggurday reiterating his request for bragg to testify about the possible indictment and to hand over documents and rut transcripts. things are getting so tense between those who the, liz, that according to a source familiar, a staffer from the house judiciary committee called on wednesday to bragg's office, someone picked up, a staff ther, and said, quote: your committee has no jurisdiction over us, stop calling us with this b.s., that's a quote, and then hung up. liz? elizabeth: thank you so much, bryan llenas. it's good to have your journalism, terrific stuff. let's welcome back to the show hans von spakovsky, senior legal fellow with heritage foundation, and sam cue wisconsin, former -- sam dewey, former assistant the cricket the attorney the. hans, what do you make of that development9 in this case? >> well, look, there's all kinds of confusion over the whole thing. michael cohen, did he just do this on his own? did he do it without the permission or knowledge of donald trump? and i'm

d.a. alvin bragg. >> this evening, we contacted mr. trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender to the manhattan d.a.'s office for arraignment on a supreme court indictment which remains under seal guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected let's bring in nbc news national correspondent gabe gutierrez outside the d.a.'s office in lower manhattan. what is the atmosphere like there? donald trump had led us to believe it could be a raucous atmosphere, but what are you seeing and hearing, gabe >> reporter: hi, there, joy. first, let me tell you that just within the past few seconds, we saw d.a. alvin bragg's car pull out of here. there was a crush of media awaiting he had no comment. he did not speak to reporters. so he left here. we have noticed a huge security presence here, joy the nypd is down here, and over the past several weeks we have seen them install these security barricades right behind me the d.a.'s office is obviously in lower manhattan behind me as well i can tell you this is not the raucous atmosphere t

i believe that d.a. bragg will continue to follow the facts, apply the law, and be guided by the constitution. reporter: follow-up. who exactly will be making the decision which books to ban? how will they initiate this? mr. jeffries: you can look at the legislation on your own and come to a conclusion on that, but plain reading of the legislation empowers individuals to make a determination that they don't want books in classrooms and they don't want books in school libraries. and once that happens, the book is removed from the classroom and the book is removed from the school library. not as it relates to any one child. as it relates to every single child in that school. that's a ban. that's a book ban. reporter: it would happen immediately when the parent raises a concern or is there tricky language in there? mr. jeffries: well, i think that's to be ascertained, but the reality is based on the plain, clear language. this is not debatable. it's a book ban. and that's what they've decided to do. in fact, when

as for d.a. bragg will be speaking out in an interesting interview with reverend al sharpton this saturday, tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern. we have a lot more here on our friday night shore. demands for accountability over a very important video and trying to go on attack and finding some of it boomeranging. first, house republicans are literally embracing jailed january 6th defendants. it's more than just rewriting history. it seems to be embracing the people who are credibly accused i the government of trying to overthrow the government and they are getting help from inside the government when we come back. inside the government when we come back. with a majority of my patience with sensitivity, i see irritated gums and weak enamel. sensodyne sensitivity gum & enamel relieves sensitivity, helps restore gum health, and rehardens enamel. i'm a big advocate of recommending things that i know work. moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrup

d.a. alvin bragg. jim jordan's house judiciary committee is acting as trump's capitol hill legal today. >>> also tonight, pack your lunches. tomorrow is marjorie taylor green's insurrection field trip to celebrate the people who trashed the capitol, tried to hunt down members of congress, and overthrow the legitimately elected government. >>> plus, the staggering increase in book banning across the country. targeting more than 2,500 book titles last year alone. what's being done to fight back against right wing sensorship? good evening, everyone, i'm jason johnson, in for joy reid. and we begin tonight with a curveball on the trump indictment watch. the manhattan grand jury investigating the stormy daniels hush money scheme met today to hear a different matter. but trump did what he always does when the walls are closing in, he posed all-caps racist and anti-semitic bile on social media. calling alvin bragg a soros-backed animal, who just doesn't care about right or wrong, no matter how many people are

d.a. bragg's office, this to our understanding does not include the side of the d.a. bragg's investigation into allegations that trump and the trump organization inflated the valuation of their assets. this has nothing to do, to our understanding, with the catch and kill payments that went from michael cohen to the parent company of the national inquirer regarding karen mcdougal, another woman who also alleged to have had sex with donald trump. but instead this comes down to this narrow case here involving the payment made to stormy daniels. i want to let you look at a bit of the statement here that donald trump issued. it was a lengthy statement last night in which he says in part, quote, i did absolutely nothing wrong. i never had an affair with stormy daniels, nor would i have wanted to have an affair with stormy daniels. congress and numerous democrat district attorneys, attorneys general and the department of injustice itself have found that i did nothing wrong. now they fall back on the ole and rebuked case which has been rejected by every prosecutor's office tha

d.a. alvin bragg. >> this evening, we contacted mr. trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender to the manhattan d.a.'s office for arraignment on a supreme court

bragg. manhattan d.a.jury indictment, a case that justice department tossed out a few years ago, a case that federal election commission would not take on that similar case john edwards paying money, that was tossed out. because they could not prove in court the payments were not made to avoid public embarrassment. dondonald trump lard already said he paid this money out of his own pocket, do you think that case gets locked out, c cos costello said ga grand jury w only shown three emaims. >> the edwards case is the opposite, donald trump supposedly in trouble for campaign violations for not paying the hush money. you know, it is michael cohen, paid that hush money supposedly, but then he didn't, but then he did. we don't know the truth of this the grand jury has been convinced. but, why alvin bragg can't went down this track and continuing this, this setting precedent, this is first time in history, this happened to a president, he is setting precedent for a plisflimsy case. ure b better have a good case f

d.a. alvin bragg.calling it purely political. >> knowing alvin bragg, the soros backed d.a. i a assume he is going to try to stack several of these misdemeanors that a normal person would never be indicted for, let alone charged with. >> brian: los angeles county prosecutor jonathan hatami joins us now to weigh in. he has his own personal announcement first on this. from what you know as a new yorker but now living in los angeles, did this indictment surprise you? >> you know, i think that the issue really is that you have people like george gascon, alvin bragg, pam price, basically rogue and fake prosecutors they are imposture d.a.s. they have been funded by george soros and special interest groups. they don't care about public safety. they care more about politics, i don't know much about the facts because it's a grand jury and because the indictment is sealed, but just looking at it from the outside these prosecutors are not real district attorneys. they operate more based upon politics than they do

d.a. alvin bragg is trying to prevent him from winning back the white house. >> the former president said there is no crime, and what's being investigated, he said, is ancient history. >> and now in a "late show" exclusive, stephen colbert's interview of sean hannity's interview of the former president. >> stephen: sir, it is a rare privilege to interview a former president and a future inmate. i hope you don't regret sitting down with me. >> even people that don't like me are saying this is a terrible thing to do. >> stephen: let's talk about your possible indictments. how many are you now facing? >> 1,850. >> stephen: okay. and how many should you be facing?

i want to talk about the threats against d.a. braggbstance of the testimony today. so this is the headline from nbc news, trump was in the room during the hush many discussions with david pecker. donald trump was the third person in the room in august of 2015 when his lawyer, michael cohen, and national enquirer publisher david pecker discussed ways pecker could counter negative stories about trump's relationships with women. that's confirmed by nbc. what do you think is the significance of that to this investigation? >> well, it's really interesting because remember that david pecker and michael cohen were both engaged and in involved in the cash and kill story with karen mcdougal. in addition to both being engaged and related to the hush money for stormy daniels. so part of what's happening here is establishing that there is a scheme. there is a way in which they work, and donald trump has been sitting at the center, at the table. there's even audiotapes that michael cohen has had in the karen mcdougal case on the catch and kill. i w

d.a. alvin bragg years long investigation five overall possibly for alleged hush money payments.rump calls it a witch-hunt. >> ainsley: alexandria hoff is live with the latest. >> trump's legal team says the

while that burden itself is very low, what all prosecu¥Ñ will be thinking andfáwsr most certa d.a. braggnow, is a much higher burden of proof. >>i] and paul, the fact that th former president has madeÑie1 statements on social media posts about theçói] investigations agt him, could those comments in in this nation of 330 billion people, somewherexd out there re is a follower of formert( president trump's who believes that im!ç■ is anñÑdxd invitatio visit just that kind of violence on Ñid.a. bragg. should that happen, it will not only be criminal. it will bet(xd tragic. >> gabe gutierrez and paul charleston, thank you sot( much. >>> up next, exclusive details about a major deal between the u.s. and mexico aimedt( at fighting drug and gun smuggling you're watching "josÉ border.4/ you're watching "josÉ border.4/ diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.çÑ ì(lc, (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g netw

d.a. alvin bragg to testify on a weak case that federal prosecutors the d.a. he himself already dropped. trump's hush-money payment to stormy daniels. the lawyer for d.a. witness. with us senator markwayne mullin, byron donalds and dan meuser, former independent counsel sol wisenberg, former arkansas governor mike huckabee hans von spakovsky. we have the rescue of silicon valley bank. and we break down president biden's false claim in 2020, hunter biden got no money from china? and the new push to stop a costly new california reparations bill that other states could copy. the president's first veto, let's him politicize your retirement savings when his budget has no fix to social security? i'm elizabeth macdonald. "the evening edit" starts right now. liz: welcome to the show. we begin with stocks up. banks rally as the fed along with five other central banks announced coordinated action to open the dollar spigots to boost bank liquidity. ubs moving to buy credit suisse for $3.3 billion. troubled first republic hits a new low in trading. it is stock cut about in half. we have more on the

since bragg took office, prosecutor there is filed 117 felony counts of this exact charge over the last year. bread and butter. we want to go to the source. dan horowitz a former assistant d.aut on theje@Ñ tra team for manhattan district attorney alvin bragg. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> you are one of the most experienced skilled people to discuss exactly this, so i'm glad you're hear tonight. >> that's what my kids think, too. >> your kids agree with the bar. i don't know how informed they are as legal experts, but that's great. you look at this, do you agree with what others have said? >> i do. i do. and i was in that office for almost ten years prosecuting complex white color cases, and you indicated the stats under d.a. bragg. i brought manyo when you bring a case like this, what kind of evidence do you particularly have? >> well, you have witnessesl1+\ú you need records to show that the entries were false and you need witnesses to explain that, so you need somebody to talk about how does the business operate? what do we put in your books and records ordinarily, and you need evidence to show why those entries for false and you also need somebody o

the democrats have completely politicized the justice system, whether it is manhattan d.a., alvin bragg, special counsel, fulton county d.a., they are trying to indict trump because they are afraid they can't beat him in the polls. >> trace: thank you. if you feel like some of the core values that make america and america have been eroding in recent times, a new survey confirms that you are correct. for example the percentage of americans who say patriotism is very important to them just 38%. that is down almost half in the last 25 years. kevin corke has the numbers and prospective. he joins us live in the nation's capitol. >> reporter: a very interesting to check this all out. some would say it is not just interesting. it is actually sad, frankly. this batch of new data collected by the wall street journal showing a dwindling number of americans see values the way perhaps their parents saw them or perhaps the way they were seen throughout the years. the poll reveals a very steep declines in things like patriotism as you put it out, also, religion. down 32 and 23% respectively. even hav

d.a. bragg is not commenting but he has communicated to his team internally they will not be intimidated and federal and state law enforcement are preparing for the worst. all based on a trump post on his bootleg twitter, and all caps secrete about an imminent arrest and calling for his supporters to protest. remember what happened the last time he called on his patriots to protest? mike pence remembers. it was the day he was almost killed by a mob that wanted to hang him. they even brought a noose and everything. which is why in my opinion da n former vice president said trump was wrong for what he did. you think? again, he said this nine days ago. less than the fingers you can kunt on two hands. already, pence has changed his tune. calling just the possibility of the indictment of his former boss a politically charged prosecution. lock them up, except when it's trump, which is exactly the way a trump banana republic would look like. joining me now, peter strzok, claire mccaskill, and charles b

now alvin bragg is trying to prove the opposite with a different story from cohen. not only is the d.a. relying on an unreliable dishonest star witness with conflicting statements, but he's also attempting to do something without any legal precedent. bragg is trying to take a misdemeanor, two years outside the statute of limitations and upgrade this to a low level felony likely also out of the statute of limitations using a novel legal theory surrounding a new york campaign finance law and it was referred to as a zombie case because it keeps coming back from the dead even though they look at it and they said, no, there's nothing here. the prior d.a. in new york declined to pursue the charges. the doj also declined to pursue them as did the fec. now here we are years later and this is all pretty insane, but predictable. if the dog bites, the bee stings, you're feeling sad. let's blame trump, let's impeach trump, let's now indict trump. we know what is happening here. this is political vengeance. justice is not blind. there's no longer in this country and i say this with a lot of sadness

but here we are, thanks to new york city and its far left radical d.a. bragge and watch his great campaign. >> a lot of people are awonderin wondering, whoever has this job ,are they going to convict donald trump? >> that that is the numberndidat one issue. i'm the candidate in the racerit who has the experience with donald trump. i was the chief deputy i gennwe the attorney general's office. we sued the trump. administration over a hundred ttimes. ant high be hard to argue with the fact that that's that'd be the most important, most high profile u case. >> and i've seen them up front and seen the lawlessness that he can do. and you believlawlessness.e sho? >> i believe we have to holdhi them accountable. accountable >> all right. >> a today, alvin bragg, guess what? he just fulfilled that campaigng promise. hen is not upholding the rule f law, by the way. a imagine electing a d.a. that is promising to go aftern one man, one organization,an one family. it doesn't seem to give a rip about the real rule of law. st he this is a guy that has let killers and go free

d.a. alvin bragg as he undertakes one of the most consequential cases in u.s. history. and while the legal issues play out in court, it may end up being the single most animating issue of the presidential campaign as well in fact, it's already turning the 2024 race on its head, turning trump's adversaries and his defenders and setting the stage for an election unlike any other. even in new york city, which is no stranger to security challenges, police are dpeering gearing up in a way rarely seen, bracing for potentially huge protests outside the courthouse and trump tower in particular. how are they preparing, and what besides protests are they preparing for? but we start with the test ahead for manhattan d.a. alvin bragg can he make his case at trial and turn the first ever indictment of a former president into the first ever conviction here's what we know right now. while the indictment is yet to be unsealed, nbc news has learned it contains roughly 30 counts of document fraud-related charges and trump's attorney is making clear that trump will not take a plea deal in

that new york grand jury will reconvene monday, again the outside pressure campaign as reported on d.a. bragge have more on that later tonight. whatter seeing here, in some broad sense, might feel like a coincidence. a lot of different pressure ratcheting up on donald trump in separate probes with separate prosecutors and separate jurisdictional venues. what do they all have in common? >> not a trick question. they have donald trump in common. why do we have so many lawyers involved? i can tell you, you can go in and out of courtroom -- i'm going to ask a lawyer about this. you can see lawyers who are zell out hours let alone in prison. mr. cohen went to prison. the new lawyers are attacking mr. cohen blaming him for everything that happened in new york. mr. corcoran is now where, in the middle stage of the transition mr. cohen went through. they both share a client who very clearly lies in public. if he lied about classified documents order lied about the taxes or payments in new york, both coos indictable. we could learn about all that have relatively soon. i want to bring in lawyers who kn

arizona senator mark kelly, a democrat, also believes the pressure is on d.a. bragglisten here. >> i would hope that they brought charges they have a strong case. because this is as you said it is unprecedented. there are certainly risks involved here. but again, nobody in our nation is or should be above the law. >> bragg's office is still declining to comments. the white house says it is monitoring the situation and if there are any protests as a former president has called for multiple times, they should remain peaceful, molly. molly: nay for unpacking a lot before and the potential indictment for us, thank you. phil holloway joint is now a criminal defense attorney and former district attorney. phil, thank you so much for joining us on the sunday evening. a lot of suspense looking for what could potentially be a pretty interesting week here in new york in manhattan. i want to start with this information about bob costello said he's going to go before the grand jury that has been at work for a while. a source for blight with the proceedings telling fox news costel

d.a. alvin bragg's. are they being used for public safety tore partisan purposes. liz: house republicans say they can do this because they think the d.a.'s office may be misusing federal grant money. plus congress oversees federal campaign laws. do you think it's enough standing to subpoena him? >> it's thin. but they can always ask about process. there is federal money being used here, the prosecutor will say i can't comment on any ongoing case and he can answer questions about process. but it's just going to create a tremendous outrage on every side with very serious issues going in our country. so i would suspect that if i was a former prosecutor, the department of justice steps in and says not anyway, we'll have a u.s. attorney testifying in reference to an ongoing criminal investigation. >> what if it gets tossed or it's shut. if they bring him in will he have to testify? he may fight the subpoena. >> down the road, once with it many all over with. that's an appropriate level of inquiry. did you use any federal funds on this, and this is traditionally a campaig

people who don't know in new york, you were also running in a democratic primary at the same time d.a. braggwas, so you're a little bit aware of pressures and path he got to now becoming perhaps the most famous d.a. in america. when you see this rebuttal witness, mr. pecker, who has cooperated before, and you see what we're watching this week, where is this grand jury at? ninth inning and then what? >> i definitely think this grand jury's got to be at ninth inning. the most logical way to look at david pecker being called back for a second time is to be a rebuttal witness, although we don't know for a fact. but remember that david pecker had a cooperation agreement. so he is fully cooperating with the district attorney's office, and i think the point here is he was in the room with obviously michael cohen in conversations both about -- related to the catch and kill for karen mcdougal as well as the stormy daniels story. we know he has information both about how donald trump and the trump organization interacted with these kinds of issues of trying to protect donald trump's public reputation

d.a. alvin bragg's case, it looks like it's falling apart. reports of fighting inside the d.a.'office, and did the d.a. withhold evidence from the grand jury? with us tonight, senator marsha blackburn, congressman james comer and beth van duyne, attorney general steve mar valup economic adviser steve moore and former dea agent derek moss. the markets are are unhappy. we got the update on the bank crisis as the fed raises interest rates odd. we've got a new poll, americans do not like where the u.s. is going under president biden. and we have new white house chaos. they're now contradicting each other on the severe i of the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. plus, why is the president going to to canada tomorrow but, again, not to the toxic rail cash in east palestine, ohiosome and we have a new report, doj's own documents, its own u.s. attorneys nationwide say the justice department had no basis to go after school board parents as domestic terrorists. thanks for joining us. i'm elizabeth macdonald. "the evening edit" starts right now. ♪ ♪ ♪ elizabeth: welcome to the show. stocks ending

it started with an all caps post about manhattan d.a. bragg in which he called the district attorney a soros-backed animal. he also compared the legal system to the gestapo, russia and china, but worse, in another all caps post later he claimed to be 100% innocent while trying to rile up his supporters writing, quote, our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful. later he would call for the removal of bragg and other officials that are investigating him including doj special counsel jack smith, new york attorney general letitia james and fulton county d.a. fani willis. in the mex post he claimed bragg was doing the work of anarchists and the devil who want our country to fail. normal stuff from the former president and also posted a link to this right wing blog with a picture of him holding a baseball bat next to bragg's head. there were seven rambling posts about bragg in an eight-hour span on top of 26 right wing news clips about the case and the justice system. i expect to hear more from trump at his rally tomorrow night in

d.a. bragg's decision in all of this? >> i think it is. i think it serves two purposes for him.think it serves to rally his base of supporters. these are dog whistles, especially to the white supremacist supporters that are part of his base, and i also think it helps further his political agenda while he's trying to raise his profile in the republican agenda against other people who may challenge him as he tries to run for president again. if you look at what he's saying and how he's saying it, there's issue of concern. he's talking about the current prosecution that's happening in new york and saying that bragg is a racist. bragg is an african american prosecutor, rather than focusing on the charges, trump is saying that he is being persecuted, that he's going to be locked in a cage, and more importantly -- and i think this is really telling -- he's calling on his protesters or he's calling on his supporters to protest in much the same way that he called on folks to protest for january 6th, and so all of this is a confirmation, rather than facing the actual things that he did t

talking about d.a. braggal indictment, you will hear even less if you are the judge in this case, especially the trial judge, you have a lot on your hands to manage. there's the question of are you going to at some point need to issue a gag order around donald trump so he doesn't continue to use his public platform in a way that is going to endanger the jury, the prosecutors or someone else but that still gives america an opportunity to see in open court what is actually happening. >> charles coalman, charlie sykes and ari melber, thank you very much. "the beat" at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. >>> ahead on "morning joe," we'll be joined by congressman dan goldman, lead counsel for the impeachment investigation of donald trump >>> plus, a verdict has been reached in the gwyneth paltrow ski crash trial. a jury found the actor not at fault for a 2016 accident on the utah slopes. we'll have the details next. >> they're trying to drain him dry. he's spent more money on lawyers than most people spent on c

d.a. alvin bragg the indict former president donald j trump, we had real criminals in the white house, political stakes could not be higher, big question, does the d.a. have a case, former pres itselfed of paying -- former president accused of paying hush money to porn star stormy daniels. the money reportedly to cover-up an affair he allegedly had with daniels. alvin bragg is gambling his career and potentially 2024 election. he claims nobody is above the law, true, but he is a progressive d.a. who is fame ours letting dangerous felons out of jail and running new york city into the ground, many republicans including house speaker kevin mccarthy have said this case is purely political. >> not here that we're coming to defend president trump we're coming to defend is equal justice in america, we see before us is a political game playedly a local -- this is not new york city there is a borough da. kennedy: a spokesperson for bragg pushing back saying in a statement: >> excuse me. but here is the inconvenient strul strug for mr. bragg. when liberal are pissed off. >> doesn't seem like the right way

d.a. alvin bragg not have enough evidence? bragg made it known during his campaign for d.a.s about going after donald trump. >> has achieved a deputy attorney general's office, we sued the trump administration over 100 times. be hard to argue with the fact that with most important most hope hype profile case i've seen them upfront and awol since he can do. but we've had similar fate's out before they got criminal charges let's have democrats or had a case in point hillary clinton scampered they lied about how they spent and used millions to fund it and out debunked steele dossier they launch the russian hoax. sidetracked the nation administrational law along the way costing billions but what about hillary? what happened to her? scc just find her wonder to $13000. but it's not always about money remember hillary's e-mail scandal? there were no nighttime rates of her home or seizures of classified e-mails were held on her private server or after she had the server wiped down intentionally but personal transgression popped up for bill clinton so to speak but hit his lawyer frie

d.a. alvin bragg's head. it seems ominous. but not if you ask the guy holding the bat. >> you have to understand that when the story was put up -- i put up a story, we didn't see pictures. and they put up a picture of me and you know where i was holding the baseball bat? it was at the white house, "make america, buy america" because i did a lot of "buy america" things, and this was a company that makes baseball bats. then they put next to that picture, a picture of alvin bragg. i didn't do it. they did it. the -- the, i guess the people that do the paper or somebody put pictures together. >> stephen: after that rambling explanation i think i have a pretty good idea of who got hit with a bat. hannity also asked the former president about the fbi's investigation into his mishandling of classified records and desperately tried to give him an escape route. >> i can't imagine you ever saying, "um, bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the white house, i'd like to look at them." did you ever do that? >> i would have t

d.a. himself, bragg, he dropped it. the doj dropped it and the fec dropped it.expired on it. >> a grand jury found probable cause, with you we don't know exactly what they town because we haven't seen it yet. all the surrounding elements of this doesn't make sense. i don't understand district attorney bragg sealing the indictment at this point. i don't understand the lack of to as to what happened in the most serious of cases. then he makes it look political because he campaigned using trump's name in his campaign. liz: probable cause of a business fraud based on a payment trump admitted making out of his own pocket. he better have documentary evidence to support all 34 counts or this will look ridiculous to the american voter. >> that's right. i saw mr. cohen, one of the government's witnesses talking about it. clearly he has a grudge against the former president. that's the last thing you want if you are a prosecutor is to have one of your witnesses going on television showing a bias. liz: d.a. bragg campaigned on saying he was going to get trump. >> that's un

d.a. alvin bragg's office and concern over the weakness of their case.around a $130,000 hush money payment to stormy daniels. relies on the credibility of star witness michael cohen, trump's former personal attorney who was convicted of lying to congress. a february 2018 letter from cohen's attorney to federal election officials says he used his own personal funds. neither the trump organization nor the trump campaign reimbursed cohen. six months later cohen changed his story and pled guilty and served prison time for making payments to stormy daniels he says what at the direction of and in coordination with trump. here he is testifying to congress in 2019. >> mr. trump is a con man. he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair. mr. trump directed me he to use my own personal funds from a home equity line of credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign. >> this morning district attorney bragg responded to republican house judiciary chairman jim jordan's request for bragg to hand over

d.a. alvin bragg, and rallying to the former president's side.president mike pence who weighed in on the news last night. >> the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states on a campaign finance issue is an outrage, and it appears to millions of americans to be nothing more than a political prosecution >> nbc's ryan nobles joins us now from capitol hill. also joining us is michael steele former rnc chairman and an msnbc political analyst what kind of reaction have we been seeing from members >> it's really fallen along party lines as you might expect, jose first, democrats applauding the efforts of the manhattan district attorney asking for the process to play itself out and then pointing out that in their minds this is an indication that no one is above the law, including a former president of the united states. and it's, of course, the exact opposite reaction from republicans, particularly house republicans that were quick to rally around the former president, attack alvin bragg as engaging in a political prosecution, an

you see alvin bragg and he's out there and he's the manhattan d.a. wo men go back quite a way. alvin bragg was a senior attorney in the new york attorney general's officee1 for some time and he actually oversaw the case that was brought againstq the trump foundation. the trump foundation in that instance was accused of shocking pattern of illegality. and it was accused of juste1 beg a personal checkbook for donald trump. it was eventually as part of a civil matter in this case, it was forced to dissolve and to pay $2 million out to charities. ande1 separately, alvinçó bragg ran -- he's a politician andxd ran for public office that he has now.3w■ and when he was running he ran and mentioned many times that a key thing would be bringing, you know, justice to donald trump if it was deserved. but he definitely ran on that sort of platform. he even said as a point of pride at times, he mentioned even once that new york attorney geneu>&, he was in the office when the new york attorney general brought more than 100 cases against thei] trump administration. a

d.a. alvin bragg who's been on this program to explain why they didn't go forward with charging trump with crimes for crimes of the organization where his cfo was convicted. the d.a. office moving forward, and it says, according to "the new york times" in this brand new story just crossing that they've given donald trump the opportunity to appear before the new york grand jury. based on the way donald trump has fought many different probes, including this one, there's no reasonable expectation his lawyers would put him in the grand jury box. indeed, he went many months fighting the related negotiation attorney general request to sit down, and when he did, he only pled the fifth, never gave substantive answers. this is a big headline, although somewhat familiar. the story familiar because other prosecutors and entities looked through those 2016 hush money payments before. i am familiar because we've seen donald trump basically -- i think everyone knows by now -- evade certain probes. but this is a sign according to "the new york times" that the d.a. office is, they say, very close to consid

d.a. alvin bragg in a series of social media posts. after a saturday morning post, he wrote, without any notice, officially, that he would be arrested tomorrow, calling for supporters to protest and take our nation back. joining, nbc's garrett haake, senior national political correspondent, ashley parker, and the former chief of the fraud section in the department of justice, and the former chief of homeland security and intelligence for washington, d.c., plus former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence. garrett, what have we heard from donald trump today? what updates do you have on testimony today from this man, robert costello, a former legal adviser to michael cohen? >> reporter: well, donald trump has been attacking this investigation, really, since his prediction on saturday that he would be arrested on tuesday. today he's focused on some legal details of the case, although he does not appear to have them correct. he's complaining about the statute of limitations, which he believes should have already expired. but my u

d.a. alvin bragg told his staff, "we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in new york." the potential charges against trump involve $130,000 in hush money he paid to a porn star named stormy daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign, allegedly to conceal their relationship from voters. prosecutors are investigating whether he falsified documents and violated election laws. trump originally denied any knowledge of the hush money. did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> reporter: but trump later acknowledged that he did know. and his former lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations, admitting he helped arrange the payment and claiming it was at trump's direction. today lawyer robert costello, a close ally of the former president's, told the grand jury that cohen had previously told him that trump committed no crime. >> if they want to go after donald trump and they have solid evidence, so be it, but michael cohen is far from solid evidence. >> reporter: cohen, however, says costello was

of all felony cases, including violent offenses, have been downgraded to misdemeanors under that d.a. bragg, for example, in september, a man named justin washington received a sweetheart plea deal from bragge after allegedly a teenage relative. washington was set to serve just 30 days in jail before terrorizing five more victims. bragg also reduce the charges for a man who attempted to rob the same pharmacy twice in one day at knife point. the man had a lengthy rap sheet with more than 20 arrests for . robbery, assault and other crimes. but alvin bragg didn't care. he hands out plea deals for violent crimes like and armed robbery, but is now using a convoluted novel legal theory to charge a former president with a felony over an alleged payment from six years ago. this reeks of banana republic politics. and here now with more, the author of trial of the century fox news, legal analyst greg jarrard and the author of yet trump, harvard law professor alan dershowitz. okay, i'm going to start with you, professor dershowitz. the truth is that there is this misdemeanor in new york and it has to

maybe send a test balloon to see how many protesters were going to show up, he raised money and as d.a. bragg points out in this letter, he was able to get members of congress to try to intervene, all of these, by the way, in an attempt to stymie this investigation. but the d.a. is clearly on his own timeline and is proceeding in a very deliberate and methodical way as he wants on his own timeline. >> so, i'm wondering because the change yesterday, the fact that today the grand jury is meeting for unrelated issues, do you think this is standard operating procedure or is this maybe caused by these outside pressures? >> i honestly don't know, jose. i don't think it would be caused by the outside pressures. i -- it may be caused by the new witness that came in on monday, but i think that, you know, the grand jury process is working because it is secret and we just don't know and i wouldn't want to speculate on what is exactly going on behind those closed doors right now. >> so, gabe, what can we expect for today and then certainly for tomorrow? >> reporter: well, here you go, jose, again, becaus

d.a. alvin bragg can still use the grand jury tomorrow, next monday or next wednesday on donald trump. as always, our sources add the agenda is fluid, and can change at any moment. we're going to get an update from someone who used to work in the d.a.'s office in just a second. there are also developments in the january 6th special counsel investigation. former vp mike pence now says he and his team are considering whether to appeal a federal judge's order to force him to testify. here he is in iowa today. >> when are you going to decide on any possible appeal of that decision? >> as i said, i'll be in washington, d.c. later this week, and i'll be meeting with my counsel at that time, and we'll review the judge's decision and we'll determine the best way forward. again, i have nothing to hide. at the end of the day, we'll obey the law but right now we're evaluating what the proper course is going forward. >> joining me now nbc correspondents garrett haake, and vaughn hillyard. and jeremy soland, and former u.s. attorney and nbc news legal analyst joyce vance. everybody, welcome. garret